Then and Now: A Lot Can Change in Four Years

Inauguration Day is as good a time as any to look back at four years ago, when a younger Obama officially took over a country that was happy for Chris Brown and Rihanna, rooting for Anne Hathaway, and enduring an otherwise pretty terrible January.

With Barack Obama being (ceremonially) sworn in as the 44th president (again) at the 57th presidential inauguration, it's as good a time as any to look back at four years ago, when a younger, less wrinkly, more stoic Obama officially took over a country that was happy for Chris Brown and Rihanna, rooting for Anne Hathaway, and enduring an otherwise pretty terrible January. Here's to four years ago—see if you can spot the differences:

Undercutting the enthusiasm from Barack Obama's election victory and attendance record-setting inauguration was the sobering reality that the economy was pretty much in freefall. On February 6, we learned employers had shed 589,000 jobs in January, marking the the biggest monthly drop since 1974. And the unemployment skyrocketed to (what was then an astronomical) 7.6 percent—a 16-year high at the time. "About half of the 3.6 million jobs lost since the start of the recession have been lost in the past three months, indicating the economic slowdown is far from over," reported the U.S. News & World Report, one of several media properties that wouldn't escape the recession as print publications. This ugly graph from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows just how bad the unemployment rate during Obama's inauguration was and how much worse it became after:

Today, it feels like we're in a better place but our unemployment rate is actually worse than it was four years ago as it hovers at 7.8 percent. The big difference is that we're looking at 7.8 percent from the other side—a side that saw the rate rise as high as 10 percent in October 2009 and remain above 9 percent for all of 2010.

The Benediction and Proposition 8

Obama's inaugural team chose Rick Warren to lead the benediction at his inauguration in 2009. At the time Rick Warren, the pastor of Southern California's massive Saddleback Church, was most of the visible faces of the megachurches that had blossomed across suburbia through the Bush years. Obama's choice to include him in his inauguration was one of his earliest attempts to bridge the partisan divide that he had bemoaned during his campaign. But on the same night that Obama was elected, California's Proposition 8—whose constitutionality the Supreme Court is expected to decide this June—passed, banning same-sex marriages in that state. Warren, who supported Prop. 8, was at the center of that controversy, comparing gay marriage, as Politico's Ben Smith and Nia-Malika Henderson reported, to legalizing incest, child abuse, and polygamy.

This year, Obama's inauguration team initially selected Pastor Louie Giglio withdrew, who had professed support for conversion therapy for homosexuals, for the ceremony before Giglio withdrew. "The only way out of a homosexual lifestyle, the only way out of a relationship that has been engrained over years of time, is through the healing power of Jesus ... it’s not easy to change, but it is possible to change ... " Giglio said in sermons uncovered by Think Progress. Giglio withdrew on January 10 and was replaced by gay-friendly pastor Rev. Luis Leon.

Four years later, and (sorry, Richard) Anne Hathaway is the only person from that list to make a repeat performance in 2013.

We Were Still Trying to Understand Lady Gaga

Lady Gaga was just getting popular and "Just Dance" was the number one song in January. Billboard wrote:

It required 22 weeks, but New York newcomer Lady Gaga reaches No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with a 2-1 lift for "Just Dance" (Jan. 17). The song logs the longest trip to the top since Creed's "With Arms Wide Open" advanced to No. 1 in its 27th frame in November 2000 ...

And we were just figuring out what this fantastic creature who used to be named Joanne Stefani Germanotta was all about. Oh, and apparently even back then people were still into Nickelback:

Nickelback breaks the record for most No. 1s in the 13-year history of the Adult Pop Songs chart, as "Gotta Be Somebody" rises 2-1 (Jan. 24). The song is the group's fifth chart-topper, breaking a tie with Matchbox Twenty ...

On January 14, 2009 Steve Jobs took a six-month leave of absence amid surrounding speculation on his deteriorating health. Knowing what we know now about his lost battle with cancer puts a new light on his leave. He said at the time:

Unfortunately, the curiosity over my personal health continues to be a distraction not only for me and my family, but everyone else at Apple as well. In addition, during the past week I have learned that my health-related issues are more complex than I originally thought.